


Ironic, Isn't it?

by reddeserts



Series: 2019 Iron Man Bingo Fills [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, Nick Fury is Not Amused, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Secret Identity, Secrets, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Truth Serum, Truth Spells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-24 00:11:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20349142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reddeserts/pseuds/reddeserts
Summary: During a mission debrief Tony finds out Peter was hit some truth serum and it comes to light in a rather embarrassing way.Then they find out that the only way they can get rid of the curse is to expose your deepest honest secret to someone out loud. Tony is there to support Peter, and Peter doesn’t exactly know his deepest secret. When Peter finds it, it turns out it’s not even true.





	Ironic, Isn't it?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my "Truth Serum" square on my Iron Man Bingo card!
> 
> It is originally posted on my [tumblr](https://tipsytonys.tumblr.com/)!!

It started in a mission debrief. After they fought some green magical being and had him meet his fate a bit early, thanks to Thor. The team was fine, only minor injuries, a few bruises and cuts but nothing much. Tony sat beside Peter, or Spider-Man at the table and the kid had his legs resting on the top of the table. Everyone else sat around the table listening to whatever Fury had to say.**  
**

He was talking about anything that may have happened that can give S.H.I.E.L.D. more information on what exactly attacked and clean up precautions. The usual stuff these boring debriefs are filled with. Tony just kept glancing around the room every once and a while but he paid attention for the most part, only to set a good example for the kid. Peter looked relaxed and was nodding his head every few minutes and he looked like he was listening. His hands were behind his head and his feet on the table which put him in a comfortable position. They have been sitting around for a long time now and Tony has just been waiting for this to end.

“Stark,” Fury addressed him. “Did you come in contact with anything odd that can give us information on the situation?” he asked and his hands were on his hips and his one eye settled on Tony in a very unsettling way.

“Well I did talk to Clint over the comms a bit, he’s odd.” he replied and when Fury rolled his eyes and gave him an unimpressed look, he still heard laughs from a few of the team members. He sighed and answered again. “Nope nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe the kid saw something though.” then all eyes turned to Spider-Man who was motionless still in his laid back position. “Spidey? You alive there?” Tony waved his hand in front of Spider-Man’s eyes to see if he was awake. When there was no answer he could hear Clint and Sam snicker from the other end of the table and he poked Spidey’s leg and he jumped up onto the ceiling.

“What the f-” the kid yelled as he jumped up. Then his lenses squinted and he realised the situation and stood up from the ceiling. “Oh, haha meeting. Right. I was n-” Peter started to say until his throat started to close up on him and other words were forced out of his mouth. “I was totally sleeping.”

“Yep, just figured that out kid.” Tony laughed at Peter who must be blushing hard under the mask. “Now get off the ceiling you’re gonna get footprints up there.”

“Wait, I didn’t mean to say that.” Peter said as he jumped down.

“Then why did you say it. Better question, why are you sleeping during a very important debriefing?” Fury questioned the boy, he still looked annoyed as always and it made Peter uncomfortable.

“Because it was boring. I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to look at you. Because whenever I look at you I start to think of pirates and when I think of pirates I start to think of Spongebob and Spongebob is funny so while my eyes were closed, I fell asleep.” Peter rambled out and Tony just damn near about burst out laughing but he didn’t want the Fury glare on him. Clint, Sam, and Bucky though couldn’t contain themselves and started laughing their asses off at the back of the room. “Oh shit, sorry Mr. Fury. I definitely did not mean to say that.” Tony could feel Peter’s blush from under the mask and it was hilarious. 

“Anything else you have to say to me before I close this meeting because we obviously can’t keep focused?” Fury looked at Spider-Man and narrowed his eye.

“Do you do your eyebrows just for the satisfaction of doing your hair?” and at that comment the whole room started laughing, well except for Steve because he wants to stay on Fury’s good side.

Fury also decided he was just done and left the room saying something to Steve as he was leaving but Tony didn’t care enough to eavesdrop. He did care however, as to why Peter would say such odd things to Fury in an Avengers meeting.

“Oh my god, Mr. Stark I did not mean to say any of that.” Spider-Man said with his hands covering his mouth.

“I was wondering, why would you say that to patchy?” Tony asked a grin still plastered on his face.

“I didn’t mean to I swear! I tried to lie for every question but my throat would close and I would say something I didn’t mean to.” Peter rushed out, he obviously sounded worried and this made Tony pay more attention to the situation.

“Why is it happening?” Tony asked concerned, and by now the laughter was gone and the other avengers seemed to be trying to listen on their quiet conversation.

“I don’t know! It’s a truth curse of some kind.” Peter whined. “I’m pretty sure im cursed.” everyone’s eyes were on him now and he could hear Clints snickers from across the table. 

“Maybe it’s magic, did anything happen to you during the fight?” Steve spoke up even though he or the others weren’t even apart of the conversation but the suggestion helped. “Could we get Doctor Strange to help?”

“No thanks, Mr. Stark doesn’t like him.” Peter said, his head still on the desk. “Also, I was hit with a green translucent beam that was heading toward citizens and got a few cuts and bruises but that’s it Mr America sir.”

“It must have been the beam, maybe we can get a hold of Dr. Strange for more information.” Steve said. “The creature we fought was using a type of magic according to Thor.”

“Well, sorry kid but I guess we gotta wait.” Tony said before everyone started filing out of the room.

“I guess I’ll go home until he can come then.” Spider-Man said before he opened the window and jumped out to swing home.

OoOoOoOoO

“Hey Pete, I thought you went home.” Tony told Peter as he saw the boy walk into his lab.

“Technically Spider-Man went home, so I can be here.” he replied and he pulled up a wheely chair and sat down across from Tony on the other side of his desk.

“We called the wizard while you were out. Unfortunately he will be making a stop here in about maybe an hour.” Tony said while messing around with holograms.

“As much as being cursed to tell the truth is really cool, I would like to be able to lie every once and awhile.” Peter had a bouncy ball and was throwing it against the wall and catching it when it bounced back.

“Oh really? And what is it you would like to lie about?” Tony questioned with a curious smirk on his face when he looked at Peter.

“The fact that I skip out on medical check ups and don’t tell you my full injuries.” Peter’s mouth said without missing a beat. “Mother fudgsicles.” Peter’s ball bounced passed him when he didn’t catch it.

“Maybe this truth curse is helpful hm?”

“Whatever, im going to make myself a sandwich.” Peter grumbled as he walked over to his lonely bouncy ball, picked it up and left the room while dribbling it on the floor.

“We are very much going to touch on this subject soon Pete.” Tony called out to him as the boy left the room swiftly.

OoOoOoOoO

“Oh hey Pete!” Clint greeted Peter when he saw Stark’s intern enter the kitchen. “Didja see the fight on tv?”

“Yeah, looked pretty intense! Mr. Stark told me Spider-Man got an honesty curse on him.” was what Peter wanted to say but different words found their way out.

“I was there actually so I didn’t need to watch it on tv.” shit.

“Huh, really? Well, I gotta go to the main room. Gandalf is paying a visit and the Avengers gotta be present.” the archer said as he walked out of the room while grabbing an apple from a fruit basket on the counter.

“Kay, bye Bird number one.” the boy answered while pulling out the bread, breathing a sigh of relief that there aren’t any more questions.

OoOoOoOoO

This time Peter was sitting on the couch in the main room. Clint wasn’t here so he is obviously late. So Peter put on the tv and a few iCarly reruns were on so that’s the channel he chose. Currently everything seemed peaceful, he had his sandwich, nobody was there to ask him questions, and he is 96% sure he finished any school assignments that were due.

Tony was awesome as always and the avengers haven’t connected the dots between him being and intern and Spider-Man yet, not that it really mattered. He was pretty sure he could trust the avengers with his secret identity since they all know each other well and hopefully won’t be in any fights any time soon where they would out him. At this point it’s just a fun game.

He also hope this truth serum thing won’t have any negative effect on him or it wears off soon because this would be a pain in the ass to deal with at school. Also, according to the clock it has been close to an hour so he should be expecting the crowd to show soon, so Peter jumped off the couch and ran to his room to put on his Spider-Man suit. 

OoOoOoOoO

It was a rather short hour wait until Dr. Strange ‘teleported’ into the middle of the avengers living space. Everyone was alerted and were sitting around on the couches in seconds waiting to see what the problem was. Peter though wasn’t really impressed because now his reruns of iCarly were being interrupted. But Mr. Stark, the show isn’t even on Netflix anymore. Tony remembered hearing the boy complain one day, but he still seemed happy to see the wizard though. So that’s good, kind of.

“What is the issue now, Stark.” Strange asked Tony. Strange was just standing there doing nothing waiting for Tony to answer.

“Well long story short the kid got stuck with a truth curse.” he explained as simply as he could.

“Is that it?” he asked and when all he got as an answer was Tony saying ‘yup.’ Stephen rolled his eyes and just raised his hands and moved them in a pattern that made it look like he was doing some kind of spell. “That doesn’t seem like anything serious so I should be able to figure out the issue soon. Do you know what happened that may have caused this?” he asked Tony.

“Pfft, I don’t know. I think it was the wizard monster we fought. Spidey got hit with some translucent beam thing. Is it permanent?” Tony asked. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was obviously trying to annoy Strange. “Because that would suck. This is why I hate magic.”

“Are you incapable of shutting your mouth for one second while I try to do a reverse spell?” he questioned, his tone was exasperated and tired.

“Alright then, just fix the kid.” Dr. Strange’s hands were being waved in circles and motions that Tony couldn’t follow and there was a yellow glow to his hands but that didn’t matter. The other avengers were surprisingly silent as they watched from the couch, but every once and a while Clint would whisper something to Nat and make her smile, Thor looked like he’d rather be elsewhere and Steve actually looked concerned for Peter. Then Stephen dropped his hands and sighed.

“Well, what’s the verdict Doctor?” Steve asked from the couch.

“Its an enchanted serum, there was a type of liquid in the beam that obviously touched Spider-Man’s skin,” he then turned to Peter (who was in his spidey suit) to address the kid. “It could have been condensation but it still affected you. It compels you to speak the truth when faced with an honest question.” he explained.

“Yeah, tell us something we don’t know.” Tony scoffed. “Does it wear off?”

“Yes.” there were sighs of relief coming from Tony, Steve and even Thor but Clint whined jokingly towards Spider-Man. “But, it only wears off when you confess your deepest secret that is true to the person or persons it regards. If they are dead, then you have to ride out the spell.”

“What?” Tony’s hands dropped to his sides and he started walking towards the sorcerer. “You mean he has to tell someone his deepest secret? What kind of pointless spell is this?” he threw his hands up waiting for a response. “This is an invasion of his privacy!” Tony complained on Peter’s behalf. Peter however seemed to be unbothered on the couch. 

“From what I can tell, its meant to tear loved ones apart, or destroy empires from something harmless, yet very dangerous at the same time. It’s a very easy trick that can work if you are not careful.” Stephen said before he backed away to an open space by the window. “I assume this is the end of our meeting, any concerns can go through to Wong.” then he raised his hands and used the sling ring to open a doorway to the Sanctum.

“Thank you Doctor, we appreciate the help.” Steve said earnestly from the couch, and Stephen gave him a nod before walking through and closing the portal behind him.

“Wow that was really quick, do you think he had a date he needed to get to?” Peter asked once he left.

“You seem really bothered that you have to confess your deepest secret to someone.” Sam said, he seemed amused. He was probably hoping to find something out about the boy he could use against him.

“Eh, I have a lot of secrets and some of them don’t matter. Examples would be: My identity, the full fight with the vulture, dying etcetera.” Peter waved his hand around while he talked in a nonchalonce way as if it didn’t really matter. “It all just depends on who im telling it to.”

“So we get to find out about your identity?” Clint asked with a lot of hope lacing his voice.

“I think I would rather leave that for you to find out.”

“What’s your real name?” Bucky asked he seemed bored because he was playing around on a phone and Steve elbowed his side and that made him let out an ‘oof’.

“Do not answer that!” Tony instantly yelled walking over to Spider-Man who was sitting on the couch still and he tapped him on the shoulder in the motion to follow him.

“Wait Mr. Stark, we should do a Q and A!” Spider-Man excitedly announced as he was walking out behind Tony.

“We are absolutely not doing that.”

OoOoOoOoO

“Alright kid, this needs to come off or unfortunate things will happen, so who are you going to tell.” Tony asked Peter, who pulled his mask off once they got down to his lab.

“I actually don’t know.”

“Do you even know your darkest secret?” Tony asked raising an eyebrow.

“I can guess?” Peter shrugged sheepishly. “I mean, the majority of them are kept from yo-” Peter was about to ramble before he cut himself off. “Frickin truth serum.” he mumbled under his breath with a wince.

“Wow, okay take a guess then.” Tony leaned back in his seat and placed his hands folded in his lap. “I will not interrupt no matter how stupid or insane they are.”

“Okay. Oof I guess.” Peter started. “I broke one of your Iron Man suits and fixed it before you got back, I think it was the Mark 13, the silver one? I also spilled coffee on some of your paperwork before but I got help from Friday to replace it.”

“Wow okay, then tell me exactly what happened that gives you nightmares after the vulture incident.” Tony said waiting for a reply on whether it would be honest or not.

“First of all, how do you even know that? Second he dropped a building on me before we crashed the plane.” Peter winced. “Well I guess I didn’t find my deepest secret yet.”

Tony stared at Peter with his eyebrows raised to his hairline and he was honestly surprised and kind of mad at how he only now found out.

“As much as I very much want to talk about maybe a few thousand things that you have done we need to get this done so continue.” Tony said after a while of just processing what Peter said. “Is there anything that you would not ever tell anyone else?” and after he said that Peter’s face fell and his eyes narrowed down to the floor.

“I- um.” Peter started and he coughed a bit from feeling his throat close up.

“Is this about superhero-ing? School? Maybe you could narrow it down for me.” Tony asked and he leaned forward and his voice was soft because he could tell that Peter was going to have a hard time about this. Peter shook his head at Tony’s suggestions and opened his mouth to try again.

“It’s um, about Uncle Ben actually.” his voice started to shake.

“Oh.” was all Tony said. He knew exactly who Ben was and his significance in Peter’s life. He also knew that this was definitely going to be really hard for Peter to say so he got out of his chair and made his way over to Peter and he bend down on his knees so he could be eye level with the boy. “Hey, you can tell me right? The rules say that right?” and Peter nodded and it looked like he was going to choke and his eyes were definitely watering.

“I- it was my fault.” and oh, Tony wasn’t expecting that. “He died because of me Mr. Stark.”

“Peter, it wasn’t your fault. I can tell you that right now.”

“But he was there and I led him out, I didn’t do anything and he did but I couldt stop him and-” Peter’s voice broke and a tear streamed down his face. He could feel his throat clear up and he could breathe but this topic always made him feel like he was suffocating.

“Hey, Parker it wasn’t you, I can’t tell you that right now. Did you want him to die?” Tony asked and Peter shook his head. “Well then I can damn well assure you that you never would have killed him, and it wasn’t your fault. He made that choice to do the right thing, and doing the right thing always comes with consequences.” Tony brought Peter into a hug and ran his fingers through his curls and he felt a single tear soak into his thin shirt. When he pulled back Peter seemed better than before, well as better as he could be after talking about a heavy topic.

“Hey.” he started softly. “Do you wanna go get some coffee flavored ice cream?” he asked. And Peter just nodded his head with a smile on his face and a small ‘yeah’.

Tony laughed and stood up.

“That’s a lie Peter. You hate coffee flavored ice cream.” Tony smiled down at the boy who gave a small smile.

“Well thank you for the offer I guess.” Peter told Tony as he stood up out of his chair and walked up to the billionaire to give him another shorter hug. “And for helping me too.”

“Hey Pete, it turns out that the truth serum made you confess a secret that wasn’t even true.” Tony smiled and he ruffled Peter’s hair.

“Ironic isn’t it?” the boy replied. “But can we actually go and get ice cream? Without Clint though?”

“Of course kiddo.”

**Author's Note:**

> not to self promo but you should totally at least consider checking out my [tumblr](https://tipsytonys.tumblr.com/) for more stuff like this.


End file.
